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Ideas for 'Parmenides', 'Naturalism in Mathematics' and 'Isagoge ('Introduction')'

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2 ideas

7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 3. Reality

221	Absolute ideas, such as the Good and the Beautiful, cannot be known by us [Plato]
	Full Idea: The absolute good and the beautiful and all which we conceive to be absolute ideas are unknown to us.
	From: Plato (Parmenides [c.364 BCE], 134c)

7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 11. Ontological Commitment / e. Ontological commitment problems

18205	The theoretical indispensability of atoms did not at first convince scientists that they were real [Maddy]
	Full Idea: The case of atoms makes it clear that the indispensable appearance of an entity in our best scientific theory is not generally enough to convince scientists that it is real.
	From: Penelope Maddy (Naturalism in Mathematics [1997], II.6)
	A reaction: She refers to the period between Dalton and Einstein, when theories were full of atoms, but there was strong reluctance to actually say that they existed, until the direct evidence was incontrovertable. Nice point.